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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Okay, by now you know the drill. It's Wednesday, I'm showing what I'm working on, and I'm linking up with freshly pieced.

While I was happily quilting the Fandango merry go round (still at it, no end in sight yet), I was thinking about my next project. A baby quilt for my friend Christine. She's due at the beginning of July with a baby boy. Should be plenty of time to make a quilt until then, no? But, it just so happened that last Sunday I got an invitation to her baby shower. Which will be on June 4th. That's about a week and a half away. I better get going if I don't want to show up empty handed for this. After a brief moment of panic, I remembered this little stack of fabric:

And then I armed myself with the rotary cutter and dove right in. Now some of it looks like this:

I am making the 'Modern Crosses' quilt pattern from Susan Beal's book Modern Log Cabin Quilting. Yes, that's the very one from the cover. I did not want to use just one solid for in between the crosses, and I made the outer frames of each block a bit slimmer. It's funny, when I bought the fabric (it is from the DS Quilts collection, the one Denyse Schmidt did for Joann's), I almost did not pick up the plaid one. But after making the first block with it, I really liked the look.

And since this will be for a baby boy, I decided to put one into each row. I think this will balance out the floral prints of this line quite nicely and give it a more masculine touch, no? I figured I will need ten more blocks for the top, but they come together quickly with chain piecing.

I also found the time to cut into the IKEA fabric. This happy group of animals will (hopefully) soon be joining the leftover strips of Fandango.

In my head, I have the quilt design for this all figured out, but I will have to see if it also looks nice in reality.

Monday, May 23, 2011

I started quilting the merry go round yesterday evening. I guess that will take a while. After an hour and a half, I had quilted one row of three full hexagons and two half ones.

Halfway through the process, I thought "I must be out of my mind!". There's definitely a lot of turning of the quilt under the machine involved. But then I turned it over and looked at the back. And I knew it is totally worth it, I love the look of it.

Guess I know now how I will spend the next few evenings! Happy Monday everyone!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Wednesday is always coming up so fast... Time again to link up with Lee from freshly pieced!

First, I have to apologize. I really, really appreciate every visitor to my blog and I am thrilled about every comment. And as much as I would love to answer each one right away, sometimes I just need a few days longer...
But I guess you don't come here to hear me whining about being busy, you want to see what I've been busy with. Besides my "it needs to be finished in one evening"-project, I only worked on one quilt project this week. The merry go round is almost finished!

Well, the top is finished and I basted it, now I just need to quilt it. This pattern was so much fun to make, it doubt that this will be the only one I ever make. And Fandango is such a gorgeous line, i loved cutting into it. I made the quilt top a bit smaller, the pattern said to use three jelly rolls. I only had two and decided to see how far they'll take me. Since this is only a baby quilt, I am happy with the size. But one thing is crucial in making this quilt: You have to be really, really precise. I think I did a good job in matching all the seams, just my centers are sometimes a bit off...

For the back, I choose one of my favorite patterns from Fandango, and I think that's a good one for a baby quilt, too.

I still have a lot of strips left, but I don't think it will be enough for a whole other quilt. but while I was going through my stuff, I found this IKEA print. The colors of the drawings match nicely with Fandango, so I'm thinking of fussy cutting the little animals and using them as centers in a square in square quilt. I'm sure one of my friends will have another baby girl sooner or later (more sooner than later)!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Sometimes, that's just what I need. Sewing wise, that is. When I mainly work on quilts for a while, I need a project that's quick and comes together in one evening. So I can hold the finished product in my hands at the end of that evening. The opposite of a quilt, so to speak. I feel like for the last three weeks, I did nothing but quilting. But yesterday evening I decided I need my instant gratification...
This is what I came up with: another pair of Quick Change Trousers from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings. I guess I say it now for the thousandth times, but I love that book. Did I mention I love that book?

Front

No, he's not wearing diapers anymore, it just looks a bit baggy...

J needed a new pair of pants anyway. This boy is growing like a weed! This time, I went for an all jean version. My husband had ruined a pair of his just recently. A fairly new pair, but the grease stains would not come out, even after three washings. So I recycled them into a new pair. Of course J is thrilled that his new jeans used to be daddy's old ones...
I lined them with a green and white striped cotton from my stash, it's a remnant I picked up at the fabric store for $4 a while ago.

I usually line all the clothes I make for my little ones, I think that's just a nicer feel for such soft skin, no?

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Wow, I can't believe I've been posting my work in progress for seven weeks already. Time flies! I love linking up with freshly pieced every week, I've discovered so many lovely blogs with tons of inspiration through it. And hopefully, a few people have discovered my little creative space here as well...

After finishing the postage stamps, I've mainly worked on two projects this past week. I sewed some blocks for my all-in-one string quilt. Why all-in-one? Well, it basically contains strips of every quilt I've made so far. It will be a present for a very sweet little girl, and it's long overdue. I started the quilt top about a year ago, right before baby M arrived. And then it somehow disappeared in the back of the closet, only halfway done. That's about to change!

My other big project was the merry go round. I really love that project, it it so much fun. I did a lot of sewing, a lot of cutting and some more sewing. Right now, I have all the triangles sewn and cut.

I have to admit it, I'm not the kind of person who finishes all the blocks before piecing them together. I always have to start piecing the top together to see how it will look. So far, I'm quite pleased with it...

And since two of my friends will have baby boys in the not so far away future, I got some more fabric (when do you actually know you have a problem and are addicted to fabric??)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

I am officially back on track with my "at least 12 quilts this year" personal challenge. The April quilt is finished! I stayed up until 1 am last night, but I was so close to finishing that I just had to do it. And I think it was worth it:

I have to say, piecing this postage stamps quilt top was a lot of fun. I guess I would not want to do it with a larger sized quilt like a queen or king size, but for this lap quilt it was fun.

I do love the combination of the aqua and orange tones and the brown, but I have to admit that I am a bit tired of this fabric. I made a quilt out of it for my mother's birthday last year, and I had a lot left over. So I started this quilt and also the handpieced hexagons. And now I need a little break from it.

I quilted it in a sort of triangle with orange thread. I went from two corners on the same side to the middle on the opposite edge and then I oriented myself on this big triangle. I guess free motion quilting would have been nice, too. Only problem is, I haven't quite mastered this art yet.
I will send it off to Germany today, it's a surprise for my husband's grandmother. Hopefully, it will be a nice surprise!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Happy Wednesday everyone! I feel like I have been really productive this past week. So it's nice to link up this week with freshly pieced.

My baby boy is finally healthy again. He got better just in time, so I could go to the sew in of the San Diego Modern Quilt Guild this past Sunday. I had such a good time. I met a lot of very nice, very talented people. And in the four hours there I got a lot done. The quilt top of my postage stamps quilt for example. In the evening I also realized what a nice husband I have (okay, knew that before, just got proof for it once more). Because he did not once ask me why I had to sew in the evening as well, even though I had just done that in the middle of the day. Anyway, at the meeting I got the top done and in the evening at home I finished the back:

I think I went a bit overboard with the pins...

I choose a nice chocolate brown for the back, with a little patchwork in between. Now it just needs quilting, but I haven't made up my mind yet on how to quilt it.

I also realized that I have a serious problem. I mean, why finish a quilt when you can start another one? It's not that I have the postage stamps, a string quilt, the freebird log cabins and another baby quilt to finish. But there was lots of cutting and sewing, cutting and sewing some more going on yesterday evening. So first there was this:

And then came this:

Can you guess what that will be? Right, it's the beginning of a Merry go round quilt. When my mother in law came, she brought me a German quilting magazine by Burda. There are a ton on patterns in there, and one of them was the Merry go round by American Jane. I think the magazine was only 5 Euro or so, which is a steal. And since I still had two jelly rolls of Fandango by Kate Spain laying around, I thought I give it a try. So far, I'm loving the look of it. I guess I will only make it crib sized. And luckily, one of my friends is having a baby girl in September, so there's no need to worry about a gift any more!

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